CLEVELAND -- In January, Case Western Reserve University will begin offering what is believed to be the country's first adolescent health concentration in a master of public health (M.P.H.) degree program, as well as a certificate program in adolescent health. The Center for Adolescent Health based at the School of Medicine will coordinate both programs.

CWRU's M.P.H. program was the first in Northeast Ohio and the third in the state when the University began offering it in 1999. The M.P.H. degree is designed to prepare students to address the broad mission of public health, defined as "enhancing health in human populations, through organized community effort."

In addition to the new adolescent health track, the program also has tracks in health services research, urban health, health care policy and administration, health promotion/disease prevention, biostatistics, and epidemiology.

Through the new track, students will be able to develop expertise in public health issues related to adolescents. The program will provide opportunities for participants to network with others interested in the well-being of adolescents and will capitalize on and strengthen the ties already existing through the center's more than 100 affiliated agencies and programs.

The M.P.H. program's adolescent health concentration is a 36-hour program culminating in a nine-credit field placement carried out over one to three semesters. Students can complete the program in two years on a full-time basis or five years on a part-time basis. Applicants must already possess an undergraduate degree and must have taken the Graduate Record Exam.

The certificate program is a 12-month non-degree program featuring three concentration courses and a six-credit internship. Applicants must either already hold an undergraduate degree or have substantial experience working with adolescents. Students may be able to apply course credits completed for the certificate to other degree programs.

Classes will meet in the evenings and on weekends to accommodate the schedules of working professionals. A $25,600 grant from the Woodruff Foundation enabled planning for the programs to begin.

"What the Woodruff Foundation did was to see that adolescent health and mental health really are one in the same," said Carlyn Yanda, the track's director. "The Woodruff Foundation was brave in funding something like this. They saw the bigger vision."

A two-year, $32,000 grant from the Sherwick Fund, part of the affiliated funds of the Cleveland Foundation, facilitated the creation of three new courses specific to adolescent health: Adolescent Development; Legal, Ethical and Policy Implications; and Applied Epidemiology in Adolescent Issues.

Ellen Rome will begin teaching the first class, about development, in January. Rome is a 1988 graduate of CWRU's School of Medicine and one of only four Northeast Ohio physicians certified in adolescent medicine.

The second, implication-related class, is expected to be offered this summer. The teacher will be Kimberly Adams-Tufts, CWRU assistant professor of nursing.

Barbara Cromer, professor of pediatrics and director of adolescent medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center, is director of CWRU's Center for Adolescent Health. Scott Frank, associate professor of family medicine, is director of the overall M.P.H. program.

For more information about the M.P.H. adolescent health track or the adolescent health certificate program, contact Yanda in the Center for Adolescent Health at 216-368-3772 or cpy@po.cwru.edu.

For general information about the M.P.H. program and its other tracks, contact Virginia Morrison at 368-3128 or vxg6@po.cwru.edu, or visit http://epbiwww.cwru.edu/pages/mphprg.html.